Uncle Bill Tapia passed away at 103 years old. I got to meet him when he was approaching 99, he’d just bought a house and joked that he was on a 30 year mortgage. He was teaching at the Kalama Days of Discovery, a festival that acknowledges and celebrates the connection between Kalama, Washington and the Hawaiian islands. I’d gone to take photos. Uncle Bill was hanging out between sessions in a little lounge room in the community center, I went in to introduce myself and to explain that I was taking photos for the festival organizers.… continued…
Slideshow misbehaving? Here’s the static photo page.
And I may have got some names spelled wrong; I welcome corrections, I’m happy to make it right.… continued…
The kid is a live wire. He’s jittery, his presence makes me nervous, afraid, almost. From where I sit I can see him staring at himself in the wardrobe mirror with great intensity. It’s not right, it’s not just vanity, it’s something scarier. Meth, I think, or blows to the head. There’s an electricity coming off of him that makes me give him a wide berth when he walks by. I watch as the other kids greet him and ask him what he’s doing here.… continued…
I didn’t see the falls when I came in, it was too dark and the sky was too low. There was a heavy mist in the air and there was no ambient light. I slid the little bathroom window shut, thinking that the white noise was some kind of air conditioner or generator, and it muffled the sound slightly. The little coqui frogs cheeped, the static noise of the falls droned in the background, and when the frogs went to bed, so did I.… continued…
